


Let's get ready to tumble!

by HeyaTaktub



Series: Get a load of you [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, Awkward Zuko (Avatar), Idiots in Love, Love at First Sight, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mutual Pining, Pining, Pre-Slash, no beta we die like jet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25704046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyaTaktub/pseuds/HeyaTaktub
Summary: It's the middle of the night but Zuko desperately needs to do laundryHe walks in to the laundry room of his apartment complex to find the most beautiful guy he's ever seen sitting on a washing machine, completely naked except for a washcloth on his lap.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Get a load of you [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864192
Comments: 59
Kudos: 831





	Let's get ready to tumble!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic and it hasn't been beta'd so it's a little messy. Might write a follow up with the smut.

Zuko doesn’t know how his already shitty workday even extended this late into the evening, but he’s exhausted. But it’s the weekend, so he is ready to crawl into his bed and sleep well into tomorrow afternoon. He deserves it.

But when he gets back to his apartment he finds that his mind is still racing and he can’t get himself to relax. He tries getting out of bed and meditating but he still feels like a live wire, itchy all over like something about him is just off.

“Fuck me,” he gives up. 

He should have known better than to try to shift from work directly to bed. He needs to unwind first. Zuko grabs a bottle of wine from the kitchen and draws himself a bath. 

It’s... better. He can feel the tension in his muscles easing, he pours himself another glass of wine, and eventually, the water has started to get tepid and he feels loosened up enough that he thinks he might be able to give sleep another go. 

But when he gets to bed the itchy feeling is still there. He makes an executive decision to finish off the wine and this time he’s drinking straight from the bottle. He goes to liberate the cork he had haphazardly shoved back in the bottle and...

“You have got to be kidding me,” it is not Zuko’s night. The rest of the wine has gone everywhere and is starting to seep into his sheets. He had splurged on the high thread count too. At least he hadn’t splurged on the wine he’d just spilled. Zuko checks his phone. It is now 1 am, and really the last thing he wants to do is a load of laundry, but he can’t afford a new set of nice sheets right now and he really does not want these stains to set. 

He might as well make a night of this, he’d needed to do laundry anyway... he puts on some pajama pants and grabs a plush robe because he’s starting to get cold from after the bath, and fuck it he won’t be sleeping any time soon. He sprays the stains with a pre-wash then strips his bed and puts it with the rest of his laundry and then grabs a book and takes out ANOTHER bottle of wine- a good one this time because he is having a night and he won’t be getting any sleep in the next few hours- and nestles them in the basket and makes his way down. 

He knows the deal with laundry. If he isn’t present for the entire laundry cycle from start to finish, he will forget about it and then he’ll have to rewash it, or deal with stolen laundry, or fucking mildew or...

Zuko walks into the laundry room and proceeds to drop his basket. He wants to check to make sure he didn’t have yet another incident with wine but he is frozen because there is a beautiful, muscular, NAKED man sitting one of the machines, playing on a Nintendo switch. 

__________  
His eyes quickly rake up and down the naked man’s body as he tries to process. Okay well... not technically naked, there is a single washcloth in his lap to protect his modesty but otherwise...

He’s been staring too long, he should... he should leave before the guy notices him. He bends over to inspect the wine bottle and retrieve his basket when-

“Well the fancy wine is unnecessary, no need to get me drunk, I’m already naked... and willing” Zuko’s head snaps up and he finds the guy giving him a salacious wink. 

Zuko feels his face getting hot, and the unsettled itching from earlier comes back full force and... oh

OH.

Zuko had been so busy with work, he hasn’t even realized that it had been months. This naked man could not have come at a worse time, Zuko is so wound up and he doesn’t really know how to handle this! He takes a deep breath and goes for the obvious question.

“I... why are you doing laundry, naked in the middle of the night?”

“Well, I’m gonna be honest with you buddy, I didn’t think I would get caught”

That’s not really an explanation, and Zuko continues to blink at him. Hot naked man sighs.

“I’m Sokka. I’m crashing with my sister, Katara?” Zuko nods but doesn’t say anything. He knows Katara is Aang’s girlfriend, she moved in a few months ago. Aang is the only tenant in the building Zuko would call a friend. 

“After finishing a 2-year backpacking trip around the world, everything I own smelled like a crusty jockstrap. I just got back and I’m jetlagged so I figured I’d just... wash every single thing I own since I’m awake right now”

“You couldn’t... borrow anything?”

“From my sister? I’m glad you think I have the legs to pull of one of her sundresses, but unfortunately, we are not the same size” Sokka grins at him.

Zuko makes a very commendable effort not to avert his gaze from the man’s face. Still. it’s a pretty devastating face. Sokka has captivating blue eyes, high cheekbones, and a sharp jawline. If Zuko looks close (which he is) he can see a very cute smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks, and his hair is falling around his face in a very flattering way.

Zuko takes his robe off, which is a bad move considering how hard he’s trying not to be hard, but he does still plan on doing his laundry and he can not deal with this guy being naked for one more second. 

“You can put this on. It’s clean I promise”

“Oh. sorry dude, is this bothering you?” 

Zuko glances down as Sokka gestures at his general nakedness but he convinces himself that this was in fact entrapment and tries not to feel guilty for letting his eyes wander.

“YES” Sokka looks a little offended at him saying this but Zuko needs to set some boundaries so he continues “Listen it’s just... I’ve never seen you in this complex before and it’s late and you’re naked and to be honest you’re lucky it’s just me asking you to put on a robe and not one of the women who live here reporting you for harassment” 

Sokka pales and immediately snatches the robe. Zuko turns as Sokka puts it on.

“Have you got a huge load?”

GOD. Zuko is proud of himself for ignoring the unintentional double entendre and glances down at his laundry basket. 

“There’s probably two loads here once I separate everything,”

“I didn’t realize there were people who actually did that”

“I like to do things thoroughly” [1]

Zuko hears Sokka mumbling something to himself

“What??”

“Nothing. You’re probably gonna be here a while, there’s only one functional machine left, after using three of them for all of my stuff. Sorry. I really didn’t think anyone would be down here, mr. disgruntled neighbor”

“It’s Zuko, and it’s fine,” Zuko dismisses his apology with a wave and starts to load his laundry “I was plan on staying up all night to get the job done anyway”

Sokka gives him a sly look. 

“That why you brought the wine?”

“And a book, yeah”

“Oh? Whatcha reading there buddy” Sokka leans over to peak.

Zuko glances down to see what he had grabbed on the way out. 

“Antigone, it’s the final play in the Oedipus Trilogy”

Sokka has an amused look on his face “Oedipus?”

“Yeah... reading greek tragedies makes me feel better about my family situation”

Sokka let’s out a surprised laugh. “Well as long as you don’t want to kill your father and marry your mother”

“Only one of the two, so I’m doing better than Oedipus” Sokka gives him a sharp and mildly disgusted look.

“I’m gay if that helps you narrow it down” he clarifies.

Sokka gives him a look of relief. “Well. I’ll leave you to your incest play and wine. Sorry about your shitty dad, though”

Zuko snorts but is thankful to find that Sokka’s statement was surprisingly genuine. 

He cracks open his book and goes to open his wine before realizing that he hadn’t brought a wine opener. “Fuck me,”

“I thought we just discussed how offended you were by my naked body”

Zuko scowls at Sokka and decides to ignore the comment “I didn’t bring anything to open my wine with”

“Oh! Here, I have this cool trick” Zuko hands over the bottle, and Sokka pulls out a lighter from... somewhere? Zuko is afraid to ask. But before long hears the bottle pop open.

“You can use the heat from the flame to get the cork out, it makes the air expand” Sokka explains with a smile, but he doesn’t hand back the bottle, instead he is inspecting it very thoroughly. “Port huh? Nice” He pauses “I have a very stupid suggestion”

“Okay” Zuko is apprehensive but curious.

“I think we should both get drunk on this delicious fancy wine, and dramatically reenact your incest play”

“I... sure. It’s a pretty short play, maybe an hour long? What about the rest of the laundry time?” Zuko asks.

Sokka grins at him and holds up the switch he was playing with earlier “I’ll kick your ass at mario cart”  
__________  
It’s a few hours later, Zuko and Sokka are folding their laundry, now only slightly tipsy and giggling as Sokka recounts some of his more amusing moments in his travels. “I’m telling you man, this guy is absolutely wasted, just gets out of bed drops trou in the corner of the hostel dorm room and pisses right on the floor, thinking he’s already made it to the bathroom, and that’s the exact moment I decided I’d had enough of the nomad life and decided to come back home. I didn’t find what I was looking for anyway” 

Zuko hums “What were you looking for?”

“Someone who can hold his booze for one” Sokka affectionately knocks Zuko’s shoulder with his, then pauses “I don’t know, I had just quit my job and then I went through a brake up. It was mutual and it wasn’t bad or anything but I felt... untethered? I didn’t really know who I was anymore and my friend who was a nomad for a while always said that traveling really enlightened him and made him feel more connected. He said you can find it in the most unsuspecting places. And I mean. I definitely found enlightenment and I even found myself, you know? You really discover your own value being by yourself for months, YEARS at a time in completely foreign countries. And being removed from the grind of things really made me realize what I have to offer- what I demand of myself and for myself,”

They both feel the shift in conversation. 

“I know what that’s like. Feeling untethered.” Zuko barely has a chance to think about it before he’s telling Sokka about his parents and his sister and how he worked hard and he’d had everything he had thought he wanted, but he realized it wasn’t what he wanted actually, and it wasn’t on his terms. He tells Sokka about how hard it was to find out what he wanted and advocate for himself, and he finds Sokka giving him a soft look.

“Aang was right”

“About what?”

“Finding enlightenment and connection in unsuspecting places” Sokka looks directly into Zuko’s eyes.

“Yeah befriending a naked stranger in the laundry room at 1 am and getting drunk with them is a bit unorthodox” Zuko can’t hold Sokka’s gaze. “We should both go to bed”

Sokka nods, looking a little upset. “Yeah it’s... we’ve been up all night”

Zuko picks up his laundry basket and hesitates “I’m in 5B” Sokka can feel his heart pounding, wondering if this is an invitation “I mean... for whenever you get dressed and feel like giving that back” he gestures to Sokka wearing the robe.

Right. “Right” Sokka feels himself deflate a bit. He doesn’t know what he was expecting. He’s been flirting with Zuko all night and while he hasn’t been rejected, Zuko hasn’t responded to a single advance. He goes back to Katara’s apartment and doesn’t even change out of the robe before flopping on her couch.  
________  
Zuko is exhausted and this time he really wants to just collapse into his bed but he waits to see if Sokka is gonna pick up on the offer and stop by his apartment. After an hour he decides Sokka must not have been interested and heads to bed.  
_________  
Sokka wakes up a little past noon to clatters in the kitchen and Aang and Katara giggling. He thinks Toph might be there as well, one of the laughs seems particularly mocking. 

Sokka pops his head up. “What are you ladies yapping about”

“How you’re completely naked except for Zuko’s robe, and how hard he was blushing when he asked about you on his run with Aang this morning” Toph’s words are dripping with insinuations

“He went on a run this morning? I left him at 6:30 am!” 

Toph’s smile turns wicked. “I TOLD you they fucked. Not even 24 hours back in town and our boy sokka got dicked down, and with Zuko no less. That boy isn’t just hard to get, he’s impossible, how did you do it?”

Sokka is way too hungover and jetlagged for this. “We just did laundry together last night, that’s all”

“Is did laundry slang for naked fun time?”

Sokka does not want to admit that technically he was naked for part of it, and he had in fact had a fun time. 

“Zuko is not interested in me like that okay, I laid it on pretty thick and he was not picking up what I was putting down”  
Katara interrupts him “Zuko is really oblivious when it comes to people liking him. he doesn’t realize how attractive he is. Besides you have a really flirtatious personality, he probably just misread it as you being friendly” she gives him a look. “I mean he did ask Aang about you”

Sokka whips his head to stare at Aang “REally”

“Yeah, he was really obvious” Aang is bouncing excitedly on his toes.

Sokka’s heard enough. He stalks out the door and all the way to Zuko’s door and knocks harshly.

Zuko opens the door with a hesitant smile.

“Hey”

“Hey. I’m uh... here to return your robe” Sokka pushes his way into the apartment.

Zuko furrows his brows “But... you still aren’t wearing any clothes?”

“I figured, maybe if I play my cards right, I don’t really need any for the rest of the day” 

Zuko is still standing near the doorway, no longer responding.

“What?”

Sokka figures if he’s read this wrong he can travel for a few more months until Katara and Aang tell him he’s in the clear. 

“Listen. I like you. A lot. And I would really like for the nakedness to be mutual. Preferably right now, but I’m kind of easy. We could also start with a fancy date first”

“A date?” Zuko looks confused but delighted

Sokka feels relief seeping into his bones “Yeah, we can talk and get to know each other and I’ll even splurge for the expensive wine”

Zuko gives him a look that’s hard to decipher “Oh. Is that your idea of a first date”

Sokka feels like he’s on a rollercoaster “Yeah? I mean we can do something else, whatever you want”

Zuko hums “So then, by your logic, last night was our first date”

Oh.

Sokka wets his lips and speaks carefully “It absolutely can be if you want.”

“I do want” Zuko fixes him with a heated look “because I put out on the first date”

**Author's Note:**

> [1] sokka definitely muttered "wish you would do me thoroughly" here
> 
> Finding someone naked in the communal laundry room is something that happened to me when I was in my college dorm and the hostel story about a really drunk dude accidentally peeing in the corner happened to my best friend.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
